M. Butterfly is a memory play in which author David Henry Hwang smoothly switches time and place throughout the play in order to reveal a story that is already known to the narrator and central character, Rene Gallimard. The play is constructed as an "evening" in the theater in which the speaker will take the viewers over his story until his "ideal audience" will come to envy him because he has been loved by "the Perfect Woman" (1936). Hwang (and Gallimard) assume that the audience is already somewhat familiar with the outlines of the story. Yet, just in case anyone is not clear on it, a certain amount of suspense is built in to the play. The opening conversations of the people at a party do not specifically state the case. Their remarks could be understood by anyone who knew the story and would offer hints to those who did not. But the gradual revelation of Song Li's gender is not so much a function of the presentation of the plot to the audience as it is a function of Gallimard's own review of the story.
The structure of the plot and the organization of scenes reflects the structure of Gallimard's mental representation of the story rather than any objective reality. There is no point where he specifically interjects himself into the story as the gradual revelation is made. He does not, for example, want to be present on the stage when Madame Chin comes on for the first time to discuss Song's assignment. Gallimard has said, in introducing the scene, that the audience will now see why everyone finds his story so amusing and they will see how "We are all prisoners of our time and place" (1950). Song then specifically announces that the scene takes place one evening after Gallimard has gone. After the scene, in which Madame Chin comes very close to stating clearly that Song is a man, Gallimard sticks his head out from the wings of the stage and asks if she has left. Song replies, "Yes, Rene. Please continue in your own f...